Exploration of Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance by Gender for a Modified Shortened Adapted Social Capital Assessment Tool in India

Abstract

Social capital is defined as the nature of the social relationship between individuals or groups and the embedded resources available through their social network. It is considered as a critical determinant of health and well-being. Thus, it is essential to assess the performance of any tool when meaningfully comparing social capital between specific groups. Using measurement invariance (MI) analysis, this paper explored the factor structure of the social capital of men and women measured by a modified Shortened Adapted Social Capital Assessment Tool (SASCAT-I) in rural Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. The study sample comprised 5,287 men (18-101 years) and 7,186 women (15-45 years) from 6,218 randomly selected households who responded to SASCAT-I during a community-level cross-sectional survey. Social capital factor structure was examined by both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and MI across genders was investigated using multigroup CFA. While disregarding gender, four unique factors (Organizational Participation, Social Support, Trust, and Social Cohesion) represented the structure of social capital. The MI analysis presented a partial metric-invariance indicating factor loadings for Organizational Participation and Social Support were the same across genders. The gender-stratified analysis demonstrated that a four-factor solution was best fitted for both men and women. Men and women of rural UP interpreted social capital differently as the perception of Trust and Social Cohesion varied across genders. For any future applications of SASCAT-I, we recommend gender-stratified factor analysis to quantify social capital's measure, acknowledging its multidimensionality.

A practical measure of health facility efficiency: an innovation in the application of routine health information to determine health worker productivity in Ethiopia

“…Before performing FA, we assessed the possible number of latent constructs that could emerge from the data using Horn's parallel analysis [36], which indicated that only one latent measure could be extracted from the data, consistent with our conceptualization. We implemented the factor analytical model with one latent measure, which presented adequate goodness of fit to the data [37]. We observed robust factor loadings and relatively smaller residuals, indicating a high construct validity of the observed latent measure [38] (See Additional File 1).…”

Does social capital increase healthcare financing's projection? Results from the rural household of Uttar Pradesh, India

“…The measure of social capital of the household heads and the communities were the primary explanatory variables of this study. During the survey, each household head responded to the Shortened and Adapted Social Capital Assessment Tool in India (SASCAT-I) ( Hasan et al, 2019 ), where they reported their community participation (2 questions), collective action (2 questions), social support (3 questions), social cohesion (3 questions), and trust (3 questions). These responses were categorized into 12 categorical indicators and used as the input for a multilevel confirmatory factor analytical model (MCFA), considering each household head as level one (n = 6218) and community as level two (n = 346) ( Heck & Thomas, 2015 ).…”

Dream Big: Effects of Capitals, Socioeconomic Status, Negative Culture, and Educational Aspirations Among the Senior High School Student Athletes

“…We consulted relevant literature to measure the three types of capital ( Wu, 1999 ; Li and Yu, 2005 ; Zhang, 2006 , 2015 ; Su and Hwang, 2009 ; Hasan et al, 2019 ). Social capital was measured by asking student athletes to rate, on a five-point Likert-type scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5), how true the following three statements were: “My family cares about my studies,” “My family discusses school affairs with me,” and “My family discusses my plans for the future with me.” Cultural capital was measured using ratings for the following four statements: “I go to bookstores,” “I listen to classical music,” “I attend concerts or plays,” “I visit museums, in particular, art museums,” and “I visit various exhibitions, such as art exhibitions and book exhibitions.” Financial capital was measured using the statements “I own athletic clothing,” “I own sporting equipment,” and “I own sporting accessories.” We also asked about cultural influences that impede socioeconomic advancement (negative cultural factors) by using the statements “I play video games regularly,” “I smoke regularly,” and “I have a rich nightlife” (Cronbach’s α = 0.71).…”

“…Regarding their educational aspiration, Coleman (1988) noted that such aspiration is affected by an individual’s social, cultural, and financial capital. Previous studies have demonstrated that consistent social capital – from parents, teachers, and peers – drives student athletes to persist in their training ( Fawcett et al, 2009 ; Hung, 2012 ; Zheng and Hung, 2018 ; Hasan et al, 2019 ). Social capital manifests as parents investing resources – including time, money, and energy – to support their children’s educational goals ( Xie, 2014 ).…”